The Phenes Update

Pierced Ears

2010-07-06T18:25:00.000-06:00

My mom wanted to take her 3 granddaughters to get their ears pierced so one day we finally went and did it. We were worried about the 2 younger ones so decided to start with Kambri

And then Haddie

And saved Hollie for last, since she's the oldest and would do the best.

Yep sure looks like she did the best! She put up the biggest fight of them all. We nearly ended up leaving without getting hers done but finally FINALLY got her to go through with it. (We won't mention that she's had them pierced twice previously)

All three girls look so cute with their pretty earrings! Haddie hates to have hers turned & cleaned. She likes to show them off - to the neighbors, her other Grandma, the checker at the grocery store - whoever will give her the reaction she desires! She's very proud to now have pretty ears like Mommy.

No skinned knees - yet!

2010-07-01T10:30:00.000-06:00

Haddie and Mark bought Haddie her very first bike together. He let her pick out which one she wanted. She's finally getting the pedaling part figured out but is still working on steering it by herself. She is super proud of herself! (So is Mom & Dad!)

Haddie's been a bubble-blowing machine lately! I think we've gone through 6 bottles of bubbles in the last 2 weeks. Good thing they are cheap entertainment for her :)

Haddie's Baby Cousin

2010-06-18T13:24:00.003-06:00

Haddie is so proud of her cousin, Lillie Anne Phenes. She was born on April 6, about 2 weeks early. She has her very own picture of Lillie that she carries her around. She always refers to her as 'My baby cousin.' We really had to encourage Haddie at first to have much to do with Lillie.

Haddie's first time meeting Lillie. Uncle Cory helped her hold her for about 1.5 seconds until she lost interest :)

Auntie Lindsay and Haddie had the privilege of being the first to babysit Miss Lillie. This is the first time that Haddie held her for 'real'

She was fussy so Haddie shared one of her favorite baby toys with Lillie...She seemed to like the butterfly's lights and songs.

Haddie's 1st Haircut

2010-04-21T13:17:00.002-06:00

At nearly 2.5 years old, I decided it was time for Haddie to finally have a haircut. Well, okay just a trim. Really, just the bangs.
I have a friend (Megan O) who is going to school at Beaux Cheveux School of Cosmetology. So I made an appointment and took Haddie in.

Pardon the terrible pictures - This was just before we bought our new camera :)

Megan and Haddie with her cute new 'do!

And In Other News...

2010-04-17T12:19:00.002-06:00

I've been pretty darn boring lately, to be honest. I'm very much reclusive these days and I've narrowed it down to a few reasons

I am excited for warmer weather. It is improving, thank goodness. But the end of winter is always really hard for me with my depression.
Haddie is a lot of work lately - constantly into things and generally causing havoc around our house
I'm poor. It's no fun to go places when you're poor. LOL Okay so we're not destitute but things are becoming tighter in preparation for this second baby.
Which brings us to my pregnancy. I've been sick until the beginning of my 2nd trimester. I'm 14.5 weeks, so I'm just now feeling better. But I'm still exhausted
I'm a home-body. Always have been, but hopefully can break out of it eventually
I'm lazy. I shamefully admit it. Ex: it's 12:30 pm and I've still not gotten dressed. I did work on some housework when I got up so that's today's excuse :) I didn't wanna get today's clothes all nasty with sweat right?! Mmm-hmm.

So there you have it. Nothing exciting. Boring ole me.

My Birthday

2010-04-02T11:29:00.004-06:00

Quite belated (Feb 11th) but here are some pictures from my 25th birthday :)

My new sewing machine case (from my sister-in-law) to house my new sewing machine the hubby gave me for Christmas. Hooray!

Reading the candy card my mother-in-law, Ronda, gives each of us on our birthday.

Haddie's a good present-opening-helper!

She tries to help blow out candles too, silly girl.

I haven't quite been able to figure out why I feel younger at 25 than I did at 22. Perhaps I'm already digressing? Who knows :) But I love my life.

Easter Wreath

2010-04-02T11:27:00.002-06:00

Last year I came across this blog post right after Easter. I saved it so that I could make it this year. Haddie helped me with half of it - I'd ask her to hand me each color of egg. She lost interest quickly, but she likes to show it off to people who come to our house. It cost just under $4 to make it, and I think it's super duper cute!
Thanks to Stephanie V. from Alpine TRC for making my bow :) I'm quite challenged in that area.
Happy Easter!

Baby Shower

2010-04-02T11:13:00.009-06:00

My mother-in-law and I hosted a baby shower for my sister-in-law, Angelina. I was so glad that we were able to do that for her to help her little family out. She is having a little girl later this month and she will named Lillie Anne
These are the invitations I made for the shower:

This is the basket we had the favors in, the 'Thanks' flower was made on my Cricut and the favors were a die that my mom has for her Big Shot.

Here's a close-up of a favor. They just had a few pieces of candy inside. Aren't those tiny safety pins adorable?! I found them at the local scrapbook store.
Here's a book I made for the shower so that everyone who attended could give some parenting advice to Cory and Angelina, the parents-to-be. I received something similar at my bridal shower and thought it was cool so I re-vamped it for this baby.
This is a page inside the advice book. I think they received some pretty sound advice to get them started :)
This is the stroller/car-seat system they received as a gift.
The gift table. There's a bunch of smaller gifts hiding behind those big bags.
These aren't the greatest pictures, but here are the centerpieces we came up with. Rather than doing some paper-type thing that would end up being thrown away, we decided to go with something that could be useful.
This is baby wash, hooded towel and washcloths tied together with balloons
Infant Motrin, baby wipes, diaper cream and a health-care kit including nail clippers, thermometer etc.
And the last one, with bottles, a formula holder for the diaper bag, burp rag and a dishwasher caddy to more easily wash all those bottle parts.
I also got a travel wipes container that was plain white and cut vinyl to decorate it with Lillie's name and some flowers. It turned out ca-ute!
The rest of these pictures are of the guests
Ronda, Sondra, Maridean, Lyndsay and Grandma Phenes (all family)
Dena and Angelina
Angelina's grandma and sister Hailey
Ronda's friend Claudia
Sondra, Maridean and Lyndsay
We did all sorts of food for the shower. It was my very least favorite part of the preparation. I hate to cook and I'm terrible at it. We made chicken salad sandwiches, spaghetti salad, jello pretzel salad, cupcakes (I put miniature bottles and pacifiers on top of the cupcakes) and Sprite.

I hope that Angie received a lot of things she needed. I was glad we were able to do it to help her prepare for my new baby niece. :)

Valentine's Crafts

2010-02-19T10:43:00.004-07:00

Yes, I realize the holiday has come and gone. I am however excited to show these to you! You know those cute ladders that everyone seems to have on their porches? The ones with the different things on them for holidays/seasons? Yeah my sweet sister & her family gave me one for Christmas. I was elated! Hurray :)
The sets that go with them are too expensive to buy, at least for my budget. Plus I didn't want to have exactly what everyone else has on theirs. So I made my own.
At the thrift store awhile back, I found 6 plain unfinished wood hearts. 2 big ones and 4 little ones. I also found a little cupid-girl thing for a whopping $0.50! I figured I'd use them to make some cute V-Day decoration. Then when I thought about my ladder, the skies opened up and angels sang! I spray-painted the hearts, some red and some pink. Then I broke out my *new* Cricut...Mom & Dad gave met the Expression for Christmas! And I cut out some white and red vinyl.
It's hard to see, but the small hearts on bottom say "Be Mine"
Crappy pictures, I know. But it was cold outside and I didn't have shoes on so these are the best I could get while standing on my porch. Our poor snowman 'Snowy' - named by Haddie - all that was left of him was an oblong bottom because he fell over LOL Oh yes, and his stick arms.
Another thrift store find - I found these blocks for $0.75 that were pretty beat up and had Be Mine hand-painted on them. I knew I could make them so much prettier :) So I again broke out the spray paint and cut brown vinyl. I put these blocks on my piano, with the 'Be' sitting on top of the 'Mine' Super cute, I tell ya ;)
That's about as far as my craftiness has gone. I can't find my creative mojo.

Hadley's Big Girl Room

2010-02-12T11:18:00.008-07:00

After Haddie's decision to climb out of her crib on her birthday, we decided it was time for a 'Big Girl' (Toddler) bed. So for Christmas I wanted to give her things to re-do her room. (It's been Care Bear themed from the time she was an infant) Before Christmas I posted these Mod Podge Projects I made for her as gifts. I also wanted to get her a cute bed set so I went with Dora. I have some cute Dora wall decals that I plan to put somewhere in her room but I'm waiting on those until I paint. What do you think of a pale yellow and then a little darker light yellow (like the yellow on the bedding) for an accent wall?
As you will see, Haddie loved that I was taking pictures of her room so she had to be in them :)
You can kinda see in this next picture the shelf that I decoupaged for her.
I have to show off her new kitchen from Grandma Leslie & Grandpa LaMont. She LOVES it, and plays with it daily. What wonderful grandparents she has :)
She also loves her horse from Grandma Ronda, and her table and chairs from Santa.
Her name in this picture is located on the wall above her changing table (you can barely see the changing table on the right side of the above picture). Would you believe that my DAD has his little baby butt changed on that changing table? I love that it's been passed down from him to his kids and now his grandkids! It has endured a few coats of paint and I replaced the knobs for Haddie.

So, there's her room for now. My next house project I think will be painting her room.

Boots 'n' Hair

2010-02-10T22:01:00.004-07:00

A couple weeks ago we went to visit my friend Tiffany, to see her new baby boy and to let Haddie play with her daughter Kapree. It was SO nice being able to hang out, catch up, and have some adult conversation. Seeing as Haddie is very much a shoe-girl, she of course had to try on Kapree's boots. The two girls walked out wearing each others' shoes...it was too cute! I loved seeing Kapree's boots on Haddie so decided then and there that it was time to get some of her own.
So here's pictures of Haddie wearing her new boots the night we got them. She had to wear them out of the store...there was no negotiation haha! She loves them so much, she puts them on first thing in the morning and wears them most of the day. Even when we stay home all day, silly girl.

Thanks, Tiff for inspiring her new favorite shoes and for also handing down some of Kapree's old ones - you're good to us!
Haddie's got pretty curly hair (passed down from my dad) so one day I put gel in it to really bring the curl to life. I thought it turned out so cute! Her favorite part was having a 'starry' in her hair :) I really like this outfit she's wearing too!

Her hair is just barely long enough to put it all in a pony now, with much help from hairspray. It makes her look so grown up!

And I have to show off Scruffy's new shirt. What a handsome dog. He looks even better now with a haircut haha.

Super Secret Surprise!

2010-02-09T22:27:00.004-07:00

This is the outside of the card I made that we sent to my family this week:I included a 4x6 print of this inside the card:

And I wrote "Oops! We forgot that it's Valentine's Day. We must have baby on the brain because WE'RE PREGNANT! (Happy Valentine's Day, anyway!) "

Hurray! As my niece Hollie so sweetly pointed out tonight, this is the best birthday present I could ever ask for! We've been thinking about getting pregnant for about a year now and over the last few months we've received a ton of 'gentle nudges' letting us know that our family is ready for another baby. My two nieces, Hollie (7) and Kami (3) have asked me repeatedly when I'm going to have another baby. My dear sister has been fueling that one LOL! Kami asked Kell tonight if she could hold the baby. Oh my, it's going to be a very long pregnancy for us all. My mother-in-law even asked me if hubby and I were 'sparkling in the bedroom' referring to Twilight's Edward (hubby thinks I'm in love with Edward so he teases me incessantly about it)! I blushed haha!

So I'm just barely pregnant - I only found out last week. So I'm about 5 weeks along with an estimated due date of October 13th. (No, it's NOT a Friday thank goodness lol) I don't know for sure what doctor I will be going to or what hospital I'll deliver at but I'm thinking hard about it :)

So there's our surprise! We couldn't be more thrilled. Haddie already keeps patting my belly and wanting to kiss baby good night. We've already kind of decided on a girls' name but we'll have to see!
Happy Early Birthday To Me!

Computers are Dumb

2010-02-09T12:58:00.003-07:00

I've been away forever, it seems. Right after Christmas our computer started dying on us. It's still dead, in fact. Long story short, our computer's still under warranty so we've had them replace the hard drive and motherboard although the motherboard wouldn't fix the problem so we're still waiting on that...who knows what'll happen. It could be another week or 3 months til it's fixed. Who knows - I am extremely unhappy with the situation, especially with HP's customer service along with that of the warranty company. And the technician they sent to fix it. I'm unhappy all the way around. Ugh!
Anyway, My FANTASTIC, wonderful, amazing, sweet Daddy is letting us borrow one of his laptops until our desktop is up and running again. I don't care what any of you think - I have the best Dad in the entire world. :)
So now that I have computer access again I intend to get caught up on my blog. So be prepared for posting-overload. I've got Christmas stuff, crafts, Valentine's Day stuff, a very special secret post (got ya interested now, huh!), upcoming plans and since my birthday is on Thursday, probably some birthday stuff. So stay tuned :)

Sewing is Finished!

2009-12-17T01:39:00.008-07:00

Whew!

I have spent so many hours with my sewing machine over the last month. It's a love-hate relationship right about now - But Christmas gifts are completely finished (other than a small handful of things still left to buy) and I am feeling extremely accomplished. I wish I could share all of my projects right now, but my family reads my blog :)

This one didn't require sewing, but I made it yesterday. It is a hair bow holder for my niece Kami.

It was even easier to make than I thought it would be. It is just an old picture frame I picked up from the thrift store. I spray-painted it black and trashed the original picture. Trust me, it was um, pretty (Haha)! Then I cut lengths of ribbon about 2 inches longer than the height of my frame. I then used my glue gun to glue the ribbon onto the frame. I didn't measure for my spacing - I decided to just wing it. I'm totally thrilled with how it turned out! If you look close at the flower ribbon, each petal is a flip-flop!! How stinkin cute is that?

So here is another purse - the outside fabric I got from an estate sale for $1. I liked the vintage look of it!

I bought a purse from the thrift store just because I wanted to take the magnetic snap out of it and re-use it. So as I was taking apart the purse, I decided that I really liked the shape of it - especially because it had a flat bottom. (The others I've made don't) So I completely dismantled it and have reused it numerous times now as a pattern! Here is the first one I've made from my new 'pattern' The inside fabric is cloth napkins that were a wedding gift - I don't do cloth napkins so I repurposed them :)

The other night my niece Hollie brought me a card and letter she'd made me. The letter was apparently her Christmas list for me. It said, "Dear Sissy.....I want for Christmas a handmade purse and Taylor Swift CD." She's seen a couple purses I've made so I assume that's where she came up with it (and she knows I like Taylor Swift). How can I not fulfill that cute girl's wish?! So I had to make her a purse :)
I totally had to save the best for last.
Oh my crap! I wanted to make a purse for myself using my new 'pattern' so I found some fabric I liked and made this!
Can I just say it again? Oh my crap! I love it! I'll be honest, I squealed after I sewed the ribbon onto the outside. How stinking cute is this?! I am totally in love. Love, love love! I'm so glad I hadn't picked this fabric for a gift, cause I'm here to tell ya - someone would be without a gift! No joke. :)

Haddie's 2nd Birthday

2009-12-12T22:41:00.009-07:00

My little girl turned 2 today, can you believe it?! My goodness, how quickly time has passed. My sweet baby isn't a baby anymore! I remember everything about her being born - she should still be tiny!
She had such a fun birthday! She walked around all day singing "Happy Birthday.....................TO YOU!" She even said Happy Birthday Momma at one point, until I could convince her that it was HADDIE'S birthday, not Momma's.

She looks so interested in her Elmo card from Grandma Leslie! You'd almost think she could read it :)

Oh how we love Dora in our house. Grandma Ronda gave her a Boots stuffed animal - it goes right along with the Dora one that her Great Grandma Phenes gave her.

Grandma Leslie's puppy Gus provided her birthday cake. Cousin Kambri insisted on Gus bringing HER a Dora birthday cake for her birthday, so apparently that's a new tradition.

Oh, my. Did I mention we love Dora? Holy stinking cow! 4 books, 3 stuffed animals, flashlight, PJs, 2 washcloths, hooded towel AND her talking Backpack. Plus there's more under the tree for Christmas! Nuts, I tell you.
This video is from this morning. It's kinda long, but totally cute! She likes to repeat Backpack from Dora when he says "Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. Delicioso!" If ya listen you can hear her trying to say it. Silly, silly girl :)

Grandma Leslie decided to show Haddie what her Riding Inchworm does. I got a video of it, too. Oh, how I love my cute, silly momma! Haddie got mad and took her toy from Grandma - She wasn't interested in it until someone else was.
Haddie's Uncle Shaun had to miss her party because he works for the city and had to plow roads tonight. We were sad he couldn't be with us, but he did stop by to tell her Happy Birthday. He came in his big old plow truck with all the lights running. Haddie loved seeing his truck!! We have seen him drive down our road a few times since then and each time she runs to the window and says "Shaun! Shaun, come back!" She loves her Uncle Shaun so very much! They are buddies. Thank you, Shaun, for making her birthday that much more special! You are so good to her.
Haddie felt it necessesary to hit a milestone tonight. After the party I got her into bed - a crib, mind you - and started picking up the house. The next thing I know, she is standing at my side asking me to rock her. I guess we're done with a crib, eh?
So right this minute she is laying in her ladybug tent (another birthday present) with her daddy. They are reading books and Mark keeps threatening to put her back in bed if she doesn't quit playing around. Haha...Oh what fun!

Happy Birthday, my beautiful Hadley. Your Mommy loves you so very much, and I am so grateful I was blessed with such an amazing daughter. You and Daddy are my life - I wouldn't trade you for anything!

Visiting Santa

2009-12-07T19:50:00.002-07:00

On Saturday, we took Haddie to Box Elder Credit Union to go see Santa. We figured she would be scared and probably even cry. She acted a little bit shy but no tears! I was so proud of her, she did great! After her picture, while still on his lap, Santa asked her what she would like him to bring her for Christmas. Right then she glimpsed Dad and said 'My Daddy!' in the cutest little voice and reached for Mark. It made Santa laugh and he said 'Oh, I like to hear her say it like that!'

So that's year #3 that she's done well for Santa! (Although her first visit, she was only a week old so I suppose that doesn't count!) Hopefully she'll keep this up - I'd rather have happy, not crying, Santa pictures :)

Little Girl Tutus

2009-12-05T16:39:00.005-07:00

Here is a project I finished today. I made a tutu for Haddie for Halloween but she wouldn't wear it - little stinker. But my sister wanted tutus for her 2 girls so I told her rather than teach her, I wanted to make them for Christmas for them.
This is Kambri's:

And this is Hollie's:

I had to borrow little one's bear as a model, as she wouldn't cooperate to model herself.
I had seen a tutorial somewhere online but kinda overlooked it. Til my wonderful friend Tiffany told me I HAD to make one because they're cheap and easy. So we decided to get together one day to do them. One day turned into a week, then my whole family got sick so that turned into a month. Well, I wanted Haddie to have it for Halloween so I finally had to just get the info from her. Here are two tutorial links she sent me:

See Jane Scrapbook Halloween Tutu

KSL Studio 5 Tutorial

I mostly used the Studio 5 one. It was more detailed and easier to follow. Plus the lady gave you variations on doing them, which I loved!
The best way to tie the tulle on is with a slip knot instead of a regular knot, just FYI. It is much quicker and it covers the elastic waistband a little better.
2 more Christmas presents DONE!

Decorating Birthday Cakes

2009-12-05T16:32:00.003-07:00

This my 3rd ever decorated cake. She's not gorgeous, but I'm not complaining. I've never taken a class or anything - it's just been a learn-as-I-go kind of thing. I have tons of fun with it, even though it admittedly takes me hours to decorate a cake haha!

Little Girl Aprons

2009-12-02T21:06:00.005-07:00

Here are the aprons I've been working on. I didn't use a pattern - I just followed an online tutorial. This is the first one I made, and I followed the measurements from the tutorial.

It was just made with scrap fabric I had. It said this size would fit my Haddie (she wears a 2T) but it ended up fitting my 7 year-old niece. The neck strap was too long for her, even. I also wasn't sure that I liked the pocket to go the full width of the apron.
So here is #2, also made from scraps. Actually, the Dora fabric was a valance that I got brand new at the thrift store for $2. I just wanted it for the fabric :)

I changed the measurements in hope that it would fit my kiddo but it's STILL too big, in the neck strap (again!) mainly. And the pocket hit her knees. The size is about perfect for niece #2 who wears about a 4T.
And #3. I got smarter with the neck strap - I put Velcro on one end so that I could make it considerably shorter and still be able to fit it over her head.

She is complete with binky, bunny and juice! :) This one is my fave of the three. I promise, it's not crooked - It just looks that way in this picture.

It fits!
I paid attention while cutting the fabric so Dora was centered
I like the lace I added to the pocket and the arm holes. It gives it more of a finished look

These are all just a single piece of fabric with the edges turned over. I didn't pay a thing for any of them, so I didn't feel like going to the work of putting a backing on it. Although that would make it look that much nicer.
I will be giving these to 3 beautiful lil girls for Christmas, as they go along quite well with something Grandma is giving them ;) Shh! Don't tell Haddie she was trying on her Christmas present!
AND I have to show off my cute model, who will celebrate her 2nd birthday next week! Can you believe I have a 2 year-old?!

Purses! I Love Purses!!

2009-11-30T01:38:00.003-07:00

My apologies! I know I said I'd post these pictures sooner rather than later but alas, time got away from me. I've been super busy lately! My mother-in-law's birthday was on Thanksgiving but we celebrated on Wednesday because this year was my family's year in our rotation (We alternate every-other year celebrating Thanksgiving with mine and Mark's families). So Wednesday morning I made a cake for her birthday, then took her to dinner that evening.
I made pecan pie before I headed to bed, as that was my food assignment for Thanksgiving. Then of course, Turkey Day! Part of that includes Kellie and I sitting down to make our shopping lists from the Black Friday ads.
Got home from Mom's at nearly 10 PM and got online browsing the online Black Friday deals. Finally around 2 AM I logged off and went to bed, only to wake up at 3:30 AM to go shopping with Mom and Kellie. YAY! I love Black Friday. We shopped all day. Seriously. 4:45 AM until 7 PM-ish. Exhaustion!! 1 hour of sleep was certainly not enough. So worth it, though.
So ever since then I've been working on getting my Christmas decorations out, which is a chore! I have a ton - I love decorating for Christmas.
Okay okay, onto my promised blog post! In all of the projects I've worked on lately, one of them included sewing a purse. Seriously, that's the hardest thing I've ever sewn. My skills are very limited. But I absolutely LOVE how it turned out!! Check out those pleats - who knew I could pull that off?!

The blurry picture doesn't do it justice. It's darling. Trust me. :) But it was a little too big for my taste, but Mark's mom liked it so it ended up being her birthday present.
I wanted to try making another one but smaller. So - here's my first attempt at altering a pattern. HO-LY cow, I managed that as well!

The only difference between the two is about 3" in the width. Much better!! So can I just tell you how much fun I've had sewing these? I would love to make like 10 more of them. But I've got a huge list of projects to get done, and I ran out of magnetic snaps so I can't make anymore til I make it to Joann's. Plus, I feel guilty making bunches of stuff for myself.

Next up: Little Girly Aprons!

Crafting In Progress - Do Not Disturb!

2009-11-22T23:33:00.003-07:00

I'm SO on a roll here. Seriously, I think I'll be done with Christmas gifts before Thanksgiving! Okay not quite, but I've got a great start on it. I would show pictures, but my family reads this so I must refrain. I have taken pictures though so I can share after the holidays...trust me, I will. I'm totally in the Christmas spirit and I've decided to do mostly homemade gifts. Not just because money is tighter this year, but because I completely enjoy giving gifts that I've made myself. It gives me a sense of pride...I'm very humble, right? Haha!
So here are a couple things that I can share with you. I'm a sewing machine these days. Last year for Christmas I made microwaveable rice bags for everyone in my family. I seriously made 10 of them. And neglected to make one for myself, and I've needed a new one for a couple years now. So I splurged for myself:

Nothing terribly exciting or difficult skill-wise, but I'm personally excited about it.
I saw a tutorial for a plastic bag holder made out of a dishtowel. So Haddie and I made a trip to Dollar Tree and got this dishtowel that matches my kitchen.

I would have hemmed it so it wasn't quite so long but I didn't want to cut off the cute stripes on the bottom. So it will suffice, at least until I find another dishtowel that I like better. For now I love it, though!!
I've made some super cute purses and aprons this last week so those will be in my next post! Watch for them - They are darling! There goes my humility again :)

More Pillows

2009-11-21T16:18:00.003-07:00

Remember my curtains from this post?

I've now finished my living room pillows to match them! I've had the material forever, and I even had 2 of them done other than closing up the stuffing hole. Then procrastination set in and they sat in my craft room for 2 months. I've had my sewing machine out lately for some projects I've been doing so I finally made myself finish them. Yay, more things to cross of my list!

Decoupage Gifts

2009-11-19T23:44:00.003-07:00

I have had these two projects on my To-Do List forever! And they're finally done :)
This is a shelf my mom gave me when I was an early teen. It was plain, unfinished wood. It has sat unused for years because I didn't know what to do with it. I finally decided to finish it for Haddie's room. I spray-painted it white and originally tried sponging pink paint onto the 3 raised hearts. That wasn't working very well so I decided to decoupage scrapbook paper onto them. I followed it with 2 coats of clear acrylic sealer. It is now ready for use!

These letters I originally bought while pregnant with Haddie. They were plain white and I sponged a different color of pastel paint on each one - pink, green and yellow. They matched her Care Bear bedding and decorations. I've decided that they needed to be re-vamped because I plan to re-decorate Haddie's room. I decoupaged the same scrapbook paper used on the shelf onto these letters and sprayed sealer on them as well.
My camera sucks so the color is distorted. The 'a' is beige, 'd' is dark pink and the 'e' is light pink. The stripes and the 'y' are actually brown, not green. (Seriously need a new camera!)

I want to get a Dora The Explorer toddler bedding set for Christmas for li'l miss. She's thisclose to climbing out of her crib, so we'll be moving into a 'big girl bed' soon. So call me tacky (regifter!), but I'm giving these letters and shelf to Haddie for Christmas as well for her new bedroom.

Scrapbook Expo

2009-10-08T19:58:00.009-06:00

Sept 11-12 I went to the Scrapbook Expo at South Towne Expo Center with Mom, Aunt Brenda and Kellie. We spent all day, both days there and stayed the night in a hotel.

Kellie and Mom working on some projects

We each had to have our picture taken with 'Ribbon Girl'. She was a super cute girl from the booth for 'Mom & Me Scrapbooking'. She walked around giving out free ribbon to everyone. She had the most bubbly personality ever! She said her mom told her not to bug people or be obnoxious. So we told her mom how much we loved her!

We got some cute things made and came home with tons of ideas. We bought lots of fun stuff...hair bows, paper, purses, wallets, vinyl, wall hangings, Cricut Design Studio, Xyron etc. Lots of money spent but we had a blast doing it! Here we are each posing with our 'loot'

Haddie wanted to pose with Mommy. She was getting jealous that for once she wasn't in the spotlight.
I have only left Haddie overnight twice. Once when Mark and I went to Anniversary Inn (She stayed with my mom at 4 months 0ld) and then for the expo (Daddy watched her). I totally missed her and couldn't wait to get home to see her.

Dollar Store Wreath

2009-09-26T23:59:00.007-06:00

Sarah over at Thrifty Decor Chick made a darling wreath after something that inspired HER. Well Sarah, you inspired my wreath. (Seriously, if you don't follow Sarah's blog, you should. She's quickly becoming my hero. She's a fantastic chick that is all about thrifty decor. I religiously stalk her blog.)
Anywho...I loved her wreath and wanted to try one of my own. The hubby, kiddo and I were at Dollar Tree (frugal is my first, middle and last name!) last week and these were my findings:

A wreath, 2 bags of artificial leaves, some glittery leaf plant poker thingies and an artificial green punkin. I actually ended up using some elongated gourds for my project, which I also got from the dollar store. Read on...you'll see :)

So I spray painted the wreath black because if my wreath showed through the leaves, I wanted it to look a little more 'finished'. I already had the spray paint, which I'd paid $1 for.

I then began hot gluing the individual leaves onto the wreath using a low-temp glue gun. I wrapped some ribbon around the wreath and tied a bow but it wasn't speaking to me.

So off came the ribbon and I finished gluing on the leaves. It was looking a little drab with just the leaves so I needed to spruce it up a bit! Which is where the gourds and glittery leaf thingies came along. I just hot-glued those on as well.
Ahhhh I love it!
In fact, I loved it so much, I made a 2nd one!

Remember this hurricane jar? I decided to spruce it up for Fall! It cost me $3 for this re-vamp. They're hard to see, but in the bottom there are different shaped green and orange pumpkins and gourds. I got all of it at the dollar store as well! I threw in a few leftover leaves from the wreaths for good measure. I'm loving it :)

Fall Trash-to-Treasure

2009-09-26T23:19:00.006-06:00

I'm super excited for decorating my home for Fall! It's my favorite season. So I get giddy when the weather starts to cool down :)

On a trip to the thrift store, Haddie and I found some fun treasures to play with. I found this fancy-schmancy tin can thing.I walked past the tin can without a second look. Until I found this small bundle of straw stuff for a whopping fifty cents. (Are you loving my very technical terms for my goodies?) Pardon my cardboard here. It's my spray-painting box. The hubby didn't care for the time I spray-painted the patio on accident so I inherited my very own box!

So after I found the straw, I got an ingenious idea for a cheapo fall decoration. So I went back for the tin can thing, paying a sweet price of .75!
I stuffed a couple grocery bags in the bottom and then a block of floral styrofoam. I actually spray painted the styrofoam black, along with the tips of the straw.

I had some ribbon I tied on the can - I wish the tails on the bow were longer, but I ran out of that ribbon. I then put some moss on top of the styrofoam to disguise it and then stuck the straw in randomly to create this beauty.

She's nothing fancy, but I think it's cute to sit next to a block of wood I have that says 'Welcome To Our Patch' that has the same ribbon tied around it.
This project cost me $1.25, because I had everything else for it from previous projects. Haddie had fun helping Momma with a project so it was $ well spent.

Rainy Day Fun

2009-09-14T20:47:00.005-06:00

Today started out being such a nice day. The temperature wasn't too warm, with a cool breeze. Then during nap time it started raining. Then it rained harder. Haddie ran to the sliding door when she heard the rain coming down so she could watch it.

Then she decided it looked like fun. So before Momma could stop her, she went out to the backyard and got all wet. She was having so much fun, I couldn't stop her. I did insist on her wearing a jacket though.

We decided to move the fun out in the front yard. You can see, the jacket didn't last for long.

She loved jumping in the puddles.

And splashing in them.

Oh yes, even sitting in them!

Our New Family Room

2009-08-03T15:26:00.015-06:00

Finally, at long last, I am unveiling our family room that I've been working on for the last week. I just put the finishing touches on it this morning. Warning - tons of pictures :)

This is from the bottom of the stairs showing the length of the family room. Pardon the mess!

Here's after:

The open door in the center is where the bottom of the stairs is. The door on the right is the laundry/storage room. Before:
The stairs are to the right here. After:Laundry Room door after:
Air Hockey table wall before:
After:
Close-up of the shelf. I had the heart and star already and added raffia to them to make them cuter:
Bar before (some of these aren't good quality pics):
Bar after:
Wall next to the bar before. Notice the ugly thermostat and broken doorbell:
Wall next to bar after. We changed out the thermostat with the old white one from upstairs, took the doorbell down and hung the clock strategically over the gaping hole from the doorbell:
View of 2nd half of family room before:
View of 2nd half after:
Fireplace before:
Fireplace after:
Window and half of couch before:
Window and couch after:
I made this curtain! My friend Stephanie from digiscrapital taught me how to make it. It was so super easy, and it only cost me $3 to make! It's not as cute as hers, but I still love it!
2nd half of couch before:
Couch after:
This originally looked like this and I took the ribbon off and replaced it with raffia. Much cuter :)
Little hallway off left side of the room. (Bathroom straight ahead, Mark's video game room on the right, heater access on the left) Haddie was modeling the before:
Hallway after:
Ugly light in hallway before. It reminded me of a hotel hallway light:
New light fixture. Ya like Mark's Men's Room sign for his game room? He's so proud of that.
We also replaced all the electrical outlets and light switches with white ones.
This room was so much work but I love it now! Before I didn't like to spend a lot of time in it because it felt like a dungeon. But now it feels like a cozy family room that I want to hang out in. I love my decor, and am proud that I handmade some of it. It isn't anything fancy, and our couch isn't pretty but it's home to us. I am extremely proud of it, especially since I did more than half of it myself. Mark helped some, but with work he wasn't home enough to do more. Haddie was really cooperative and watched movies while I painted. She and I had fun hanging out together downstairs. Anyway, so here she is - all ready for us to enjoy as a family!

Curtains

2009-07-31T02:22:00.006-06:00

Okay I am finally posting pictures of my new curtains. It has been an incredibly busy week so I've not had a chance to post them. And as it is 2:30 AM, I really should be in bed anyway. But it's hanging over my head.
Here's a before of the kitchen curtains. The color is a little off - they're really more yellow-y than they look here. They're called traverse curtains; I looked it up haha! They have the pulley-type thing that you pull the string to open and close them. They're ancient, filthy, ripped and even a bit chewed up by the dog. So we were due for an upgrade.

Here's my new ones. Can I just tell you I love them? Please ignore the holes in the wall from the old rod - hubby is asking me now to add painting the kitchen to my to-do list. Oh look you can see out to my pretty backyard. I love my yard :)

I forgot to take before pictures of the living room curtains. This was the best I could find - from Haddie's birthday! Can I tell you how much fun it is having a birthday 12 days before Christmas? Ugh! This is the just the sheers, it had a 2nd rod that had the same kind of curtains as the old kitchen ones.

And here's the new ones! I had a hard time deciding on curtains because I love my big window and didn't want to distract from it too much. These were just what I was hoping to achieve. Again, please ignore the old rod holes!

Oh I love my clock! And if you click on this picture to enlarge it, you can see the gorgeous detail on the curtain rod. I fell in love with it!

They're nothing extravagant, but I love them. They cost me much more than I anticipated. (We're talking just over $150!!!! For the panels, rods, and hold backs) I could have made them cheaper, I know. But I doubted my sewing abilities and I was impatient. I suppose it's a good thing I love them :)

Easy Improvements

2009-07-31T01:57:00.005-06:00

I've wanted to do a couple minor things in my upstairs hallway for awhile now. Why I put it off for so long is beyond me. Or perhaps I've just been lazy. No, that can't be it! :)
This lovely light fixture has driven me crazy since we bought our house last year.

$14 and 10 minutes later -Voila! Greatly improved.

Then these two eye-sores: An old air conditioner switch left behind after central air was installed and a cheapo thermostat installed with the central air. Leaving behind the pretty rectangle of different paint as well. Apparently the previous owners weren't worried about aesthetics.

But I am, dang it! So, a .30 cent cover and $25 for a programmable thermostat with about 20 minutes work and it's now more pleasing to my eyes.

Eventually I will repaint the hallway and when I do I will just patch up the hole but for now this makes me a lot happier. And my utility bill will be happier with the programmable thermostat as well!
And I installed a dimmer switch in the living room. I wanted to be able to control the lighting better in there. I did it myself! Are you so impressed? I was quite proud. I never do stuff like that :)

A Work In Progress

2009-07-26T13:24:00.004-06:00

Here's my progress thus far with painting the paneling in the family room:

It is such a mess - I hardly have room to move around! But there's no way I'm moving all this furniture upstairs out of the way. This is a very long process. I'm still working on priming all the grooves in the paneling. By this evening I should be able to get the rollers out and prime over all of it. I don't think I'm doing too bad, considering this is a one-woman show and the room is huge.
Little one is down for a nap now, so it's time to hit the paintbrush again :)

Hurricane Jar

2009-07-26T13:02:00.003-06:00

Remember this?

Here's one idea I had - I put some green moss in it with a red candle. Then decided that the whole bag of moss was too much.

But then I also thought of putting black rocks in the bottom with the same candle. Pardon the bad pictures, my camera sucks. But check out Momma's little helper :)

Haddie liked chocolate goldfish in it instead - here is her masterpiece!
So, which do you like better? The black rocks or the moss (if I take half of it out)? Or do you have any other ideas for this jar?

Pillows

2009-07-21T23:02:00.007-06:00

I have to pat myself on the back. I pulled out my sewing machine and sewed for the first time last night since middle school. Which means I was fairly clueless as to what I was doing :) But I figured it out, plus pillows really aren't that tough.

Here's one side of them:

And here's the other:

Freaking awesome, right? I seriously made them in like, 2 hours. Which I didn't think was bad, considering my expertise (or the lack thereof), I stuffed the crap out of them (I didn't want wussy pillows), and I had some sewing machine problems in the middle of it that took me awhile to figure out and then fix. They're bigger than the pictures make them look - they're just shy of being the same size as a standard pillow. I have 2 square pillows, one red and one dark blue, that these will go great with on my family room couch.

Here's a tile I made for the family room a month or so ago. I used my Cricut and Design Studio to cut the vinyl. Unless I decide differently later, it is going above my fireplace on the mantle. Yes, the 'F' is backwards, but I promise it's the font that did it, not me!

And just because I'm thrilled with all my new Americana decorations, you must endure a picture of it all together:

This is just the new stuff - I have lots of other stuff I've acquired over the last year or so, but it's already in place in the family room. For now - until I get my primer and paint and paint those ugly panel walls. Then I get to redecorate it all over again! Yay!

Barn Stars

2009-07-21T22:43:00.004-06:00

Okay so you remember these? YAY! They're ready for show and tell!

Tada! I'm so excited for them. The yellow just wasn't doing it for me, not to mention the fact that I'm decorating in Red, White (cream actually) and BLUE.

I love them :) At first, when I was distressing this one:

...I was not pleased with how it was looking. My sandpaper was leaving scratch marks all over the place, and some of the old yellow ended up poking through. So I distressed all of it that I wanted done, then I sprayed another very light coat of blue paint over top. It fixed the scratch marks AND the yellow. Plus I just think it looks cool!

Haddie's First Boo-Boo

2009-07-21T22:30:00.006-06:00

Seriously! On Sunday, Haddie received her first skinned elbow believe it or not. She has yet to skin her knees too. I don't know how she's gotten so lucky, especially considering she's accident-prone. She fell off our porch - it's a short one, just a small step up from the ground. She was so excited to be let loose in the front yard that she went running off the porch. And crashed. I felt so bad!

Okay so call me a sentimental fool, but I had to take pictures. So sad! My poor little monkey.
Here is a picture from today, showing her elbow nicely healing. She won't keep a bandaid on, so I can't keep Neosporin on it for her :(
She pulled a towel out of the linen closet, carried it outside and laid down on it by the patio steps. Seriously, she's a weird kid. I'm embarrassed that she's still using that stupid bottle. In my defense, she will NOT drink milk out of any other container. So I give in. Go me!

Yard Sale Finds

2009-07-18T19:41:00.007-06:00

I'm quite proud of my yard sale finds today! I spent more ($13.25) than I usually do at yard sales, but I'm especially excited about these, so I won't complain :)

This hurricane jar was .25! I'm going to fill it with something fun and use it as my table centerpiece - if I can keep little one's hands off it. Otherwise it will reside in a higher location.

I am in L-O-V-E with these barn stars. $10 for these; there were twice as many as these shown, but Kellie and I split them. They were brand new with tags, with the cheapest being about $11. We spent $20 for all of them. I have the yellow one on the left hung outside my front door for now. But after some paint, they will eventually live in my family room, which is decorated in Americana.

I love the detail on these! How fun!
This wall hanging I paid $2 for - a little steep, but it goes incredibly well with my Americana decor. I'm going to change out the pink ribbon (huh?) on the top.
Apologies for the picture quality. This little throw pillow I couldn't pass up for $1.

Here's a side pic of the pillow, showing the material that's on the back. Those are little stars all over it, not dots.

I SO cannot wait to get my family room done. It's a huge project, as the room runs the entire length of the house - it makes up 1/4 of my home's square footage! That's a lot of paneling to prime/paint. But it will be gorgeous once it's done.

Lamp Revamp

2009-07-18T12:26:00.003-06:00

This lamp has just undergone it's 2nd paint job. It originally was a forest green color, with a pretty (gag!) gold metal base. Well, not thinking right, I spray painted it without priming it. Big mistake. The glass wouldn't hold the paint so it started bubbling up and peeling. I wish I'd taken pictures along the way but I spaced it. She's a much prettier lamp now!

So this is after being sanded down, primed, and about 4 coats of spray paint. The whole thing is dark red, despite the picture being dark on the bottom. I painted the harp black as it was ghastly gold like the bottom. I don't know if it actually looks any better, but at least it matches my living room better!

Any suggestions on the lampshade? It looks kinda boring to me, but I'm new to this making old things look new stuff, so I'm not sure what it needs. Or if it needs anything at all.

Pink Sink - Dedicated to Stephanie

2009-07-18T12:15:00.005-06:00

Okay Stephanie, here's your post from me :)

Kellie told me about your 'pink' kitchen. You don't even understand pink apparently haha! So it's imperative that you view what a pink sink really looks like.

VOILA!

That, my dear, is a pink sink. It is a ghastly thing! So now perhaps you'll pity me and keep your eyes open for a pedestal sink to replace this beauty :)

Shadow Boxes

2009-07-11T21:46:00.005-06:00

I was going to get rid of these shadow boxes that we received as a wedding gift. I always thought they were cute, but the little ones were just too little for pictures. Then I got the idea to use them as a wall collage. I was pretty proud of myself - most of my projects I have had inspiration from someone else helping me along. But this one was all me! (And a few opinions from my sister in the arrangement) They are hanging on the wall in my craft/computer room. I already had everything that I used in these. I just pulled out some scrapbook paper and my fabulous O'Scrap embellishment bag chuck full of treasures and went to town. I ended up spending more time on these than I'd planned, but I think they turned out CA-ute! What do you think?
I will be adding more to this wall in the future!

Cousin Playdate

2009-07-11T21:24:00.006-06:00

Hollie and Kambri came to play with Haddie earlier this week. I love to watch them playing so well together. It absolutely helps that we're getting more outdoors toys for them to play with, as they are all outside-kind of kids.

Hollie pushing Kambri in the swingKami really likes Haddie's swing. Little does she know, it is a hand-me-down from her. Sneaky mothers is what it comes down to. Isn't it funny how your kids aren't interested in their toys until they see someone else playing with them?
I absolutely LOVE this beautiful smile of Kami's. She and her Angel Auntie Michelle share many characteristics, this smile being one of them.

Mark had our shed open because he was mowing the lawn while the girls were all playing. Kami went in there and found Haddie's infant car seat. Yet we keep buying them expensive toys :)Kami also seemed pretty interested in my flower beds. Do you see that play toy above the fence? It is a huge fort-type thing that my neighbor made by hand. It includes one of those slides that you see in most parks. They also have a trampoline with a safety net around it. It seems we need to become friends with these neighbors; don't you agree?

Wheee!

2009-07-10T01:21:00.009-06:00

Haddie was just given two slides from her Grandma Ronda. They were Aunt Lyndsay's that she's outgrown. They sure are a hit! Haddie wants to play outside all day long now.

I don't know what it is about her face in this picture, but it just makes me smile. Maybe it's her teeth showing just so.

She's already become fearless on these slides - she prefers to crawl up the slide and then come down again on her tummy. She's discovered that bare feet provide better traction for climbing up.

Daddy's enjoying his trademark Coke Slurpee while outside playing with Haddie.

Too bad for him, Haddie seems to enjoy them as well!

We absolutely love this great weather so we can enjoy our fun backyard and play as a family.

Fireman Shaun

2009-07-04T01:04:00.006-06:00

My brother-in-law is a fireman!

Last weekend Kellie and I went to a few yard sales. I found this puzzle, brand new in the plastic for 75 cents. I was thrilled - Haddie loves these wooden puzzles, AND her Uncle Shaun just became a member of the Brigham City Fire Department. So I couldn't pass this up!

I got the idea to make this even more special for Haddie. I decided that since this fireman isn't very nice looking, we should turn him into Shaun! So I used Mod Podge to put some pictures of Shaun over this guy's face. Please excuse the poor quality of these pictures!
Here's some before pics:

And here's the afters:
I forgot to get a before of this one - but this fireman was wearing a mask so he didn't have a face anyway.

Now there is a handsome fireman!

We are so proud of Shaun! This is such a great opportunity for him. I love to see how excited he is about wanting to make a difference for our community. I love when I hear his radio - he stops whatever he is doing to listen to it, hoping to hear a call for him to go out! It is an honor to have him as a member of our family. We love you so much Shaun!
And just because I love saying it, MY BROTHER-IN-LAW IS A FIREMAN!

Summer Swimming

2009-07-04T00:37:00.006-06:00

We just bought Haddie a little swimming pool to put in the backyard. She's always been such a water baby, so we knew it would be a hit.
Here, she's climbing into it. Silly little girl!

She was so excited when Momma climbed in with her. We were filling her watering can so I could pour it over her. She laughed so hard having the water poured on her head!

She's started sticking her little tongue out like her Grandma Leslie does when she's concentrating.

I showed her how to use the hose to spray herself. She thought it was pretty neat.

Poor girl had straps digging into her shoulders because her suit is too small. Auntie Kellie gave us a couple of Kambri's old ones, and Grandma Leslie loaned us one of Auntie Michelle's!

We brought out her bath toys. She kept throwing her ducks on the lawn and jumping out to grab them. She played that game for awhile.

I had so much fun playing outside with her. Oh, how I love my little Hadley!

Household To-Do List

2009-07-02T17:08:00.021-06:00

I've been putting together projects in my head that need to be done in my house. My brain is a swimming mess so I figured this was as good a place as any to clear it out. It's quite overwhelming, but I hope to have it all done by Christmas. Hopefully.
So here it is...feel free to skip over this entire post - perhaps quite boring! *I warned ya!*
*Completed project*

Living Room
Paint - beige/tannish color
Sand and paint molding around door
*Install a dimmer switch*
*New window treatment*

Kitchen
*New window treatment*
*Go through cupboards & get rid of unused items*
Paint - per hubby's request

Big (Haddie's) Bathroom
Rip up carpet, then tile floor
Paint
Window Treatment
New vanity
New medicine cabinet
New light fixture

Haddie's Room
*Take armoire out to shed*
*Move in play kitchen from Living Room*
Paint - pink or purple?
*Decoupage wall letters -HADLEY- using scrapbook paper*

Computer/Craft Room
Rearrange furniture
*Clean out closet*
*Put scrapbook paper in shadowboxes and hang on wall*
Cut vinyl saying with Cricut AND apply to wall

Master Bedroom
Replace fan blades (Mark broke one when we moved in!)
Use Old English oil on dresser
Paint - beige

Master (small) Bathroom
Rip up carpet then tile floor
Paint - unsure of color/decor
Window treatment - have valances, need rods
Find pedestal sink to replace TACKY pink sink! (Yay for old houses!)
New light fixture

Hallway
*New light fixture*
*Clean/Organize linen closet*
*Install programmable thermostat*

Wow this is becoming incredibly depressing! I doubt I've ever had a to-do list this long! Must remind myself this is ALL inclusive, nothing left out! Even the small stuff is here. *Sigh. Breathe*

Stairwell
Patch wall from crappy contractor's job
Hang pictures - It's mighty bare!
Replace glass for framed bridal picture

Family Room
*Prime & paint paneling - cream*
*Make pillows with DARLING Americana fabric I found*
*Window Valance*
*New (Used, but new to us) couch.*

Downstairs Bathroom
Rip up carpet, then tile floor
Paint - unsure of color/decor
Window treatment
New light fixture

Storage Room
Get rid of ancient barrels (No idea what they are, were left from previous owner)
*Give filing cabinet a permanent home, put to use*
*Clean/organize*
*Utilize our new safe we HAD to have*

Outside
*Clean toy box and fill with outside toys*
*Hang Haddie's swing from tree*
New grill
*Find a bug zapper*
Clean/organize back shed

Spray Painting Projects
2 mirrors (master bedroom and downstairs bath)
*2 shelves (Haddie's room & Living Room)*
*Sand, prime and repaint living room lamp*
*5 picture frames*

Make window/flower box from old window
Paint inside doors/closet doors. These are those old, hollow, laminate doors. How is the best way to paint these? Do you need to sand them first, or can you just prime and then paint? And would you paint them with a brush, or roller...I'm hoping for advice on that project! I'd love new doors, but can't afford it so I'd like to make them look a tad nicer.

I'm totally up for advice, suggestions, or HELP on any of these projects! Now I just need to get started, now that I've cleared these out of my head!

Batteries....

2009-07-01T23:47:00.002-06:00

I had great intentions of doing a new post tonight showing my recent endeavors, but when I went to hook the camera up to the USB, my batteries died! Stupid, stupid batteries. I've been procrastinating and then this happens, go figure!
So stay tuned - I'll be posting multiple times once I'm all charged up again. - With Batteries and Ambition :) I've got some fun stuff coming up that I'm so excited to share!
Hooray for warm, sunshine-y days! It's amazing what good weather does for me. I feel like myself lately so I've got lots of projects lined up that I'm totally anxious to work on! Beware, if you come to our house, you'll be assaulted with dust and paint fumes.
More coming soon!

Father's Day

2009-06-21T12:30:00.003-06:00

Mark with his Father's Day gifts from Haddie and I - including the mug filled with Coke Slurpee. Check out Haddie's freaky eyes!

We went to my parents' house for dinner, where my mom cooked steak and shrimp because that's the guys' (Dad, Mark, and Shaun) fave. I hope they all had a very Happy Father's Day.
I want the men in my life to know how much I love and appreciate them! We'd be lost without you. Thanks for all you do for us.

Haddie and Kambri - BFFs!

2009-06-11T19:24:00.003-06:00

Haddie loves having playdates with her cousin Kambri! They're so cute, when Kellie dropped Kambri off, Haddie ran to Kam and gave her a hug and a kiss. She's recently started saying Kambri's name, and it sounds like 'Babri' - adorable!

The girls wanted to share Uncle Mark's Coke Slurpee, so they took off with it and sat in the rocker to enjoy it together.

They found the horns Mark bought at an indoor football game, and they had a hay day playing with them. What silly kids! I'm so grateful that they're so close in age and are becoming good friends.

I certainly love these beautiful girls!

Haddie's Antics

2009-06-11T19:01:00.007-06:00

Haddie just hanging out - I had to post this picture because I think her pigtails looked so cute that day! I'm totally loving that her hair is growing long enough to actually do something with it.

Poor girl, all tuckered out watching Barney!

Yeah this is what a sliding door is supposed to look like when it's unlocked.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered it looked like this........

when I walked outside to check on my vegetables and left Haddie alone in the kitchen. Haddie decided she wanted to lock Momma out in the rain! Mark was sleeping after working graveyard - until I had to pound on the window to get him to let me back in the house. Poor guy! I tried getting Haddie to unlock it but she got mad that she wasn't outside WITH me, so she laid on the floor and threw a tantrum instead. She's getting way too smart!

The Flow of Life

2009-05-14T13:20:00.005-06:00

I figured it was about time for an update post. However, there's not much to update about! We're just living day-to-day. Same old, same old. We did get more insulation put in our attic because of the rebate that ended in April making our insulation free. I've noticed a huge difference, mostly in Haddie's room. We keep her door shut while she's sleeping and her room gets ice cold. So that's much better now.
Mother's Day was wonderful - we got together with Mark's family on Saturday. His mom gave me a cute decoration for my flower bed. It's 3 logs tied together with black bear statues and a solar light on top. It's darling! Mark's grandma gave me $20. We went up to my mom's house on Sunday where we had dinner with her and my dad. It was a nice, no-fuss meal and we sat and had a good visit. Mom helped the grandkids color cards for Kellie and I with a saying about being a Marvelous Mom with a package of M&Ms. My little Haddie walked into the room and handed it right to me and gave me loves. It was very sweet. Mom had a hard day because she was thinking a lot about my little sister, Michelle, who passed away in 1991. May 27th would be her 22nd birthday - I just can't imagine my 4-year-old sister being 22!
Haddie is growing just as all kids do....lighting speed with no signs of slowing down. Which is bittersweet for me. I thoroughly enjoy watching her grow and learn new things, but I miss my baby being my baby! She is saying more and more things all the time. It baffles me how easily kids pick things up. She's now occasionally saying 'Thank You' without being prompted. My favorite thing she says right now is 'Geeky' which is her binky. My sweet little girl is getting so big!

Kate Voegele Concert

2009-04-29T21:10:00.008-06:00

Mark, Dad and I went to Club Sound in Salt Lake on Friday (4/24) to see Kate Voegele for the opening of her Lift Me Up Tour. This was the second time we've seen her live (The first was after her first album, Don't Look Away, was released). For those who don't know, Kate plays Mia Catalano on the TV series One Tree Hill, which is where I first heard of her. She is soooo tiny! Very short and petite, with a darling personality. She's definitely among a handful of my favorite artists. Her 2nd album, A Fine Mess, will be released May 18th. I'm so excited for that. She's featured a few of the new songs on recent episodes of One Tree Hill, and will release more throughout the remaining 3 episodes of 6th season. We did however get a sneak peek at some of these songs at the concert. I cannot wait!
Anyway, the show started 30 min late because her tour bus broke down 400 miles from SLC. They were able to get a replacement bus to get them to the concert on time, thankfully. But because of the bus problems they were unable to have their full stage setup. There were no drums - which I didn't mind, because you can't ever hear much at concerts partly because of drums. Their drummer however substituted with various percussion instruments. It was kind of an unplugged performance. I loved it! Here are a few pics from the concert. Enjoy!

Check out those shoes....?

This is her tour bus from last year, but it is fairly similar to her current one.

She wrote a song for the 2008 Summer Olympics titled "Lift Me Up". It is a great song, and one of my many faves of hers. She's a great songwriter, and has a beautiful voice.

Crazy Flower Lady

2009-04-24T12:36:00.003-06:00

So I've decided I've become obsessive. Last night a teenage couple walked past my house. They walked onto my lawn, up to my tree and the girl pulled out one of my tulips. I watched her do this from my living room (Seriously, how could she have not seen me? I was standing in my huge front window!) I pounded on the window and Mark ran to the door and yelled at them..."Those flowers aren't free for the picking, you know!" They turned and stared at us and the girl just kinda muttered "SOrry!" You know, with that typical teenager I-don't-give-a-crap attitude. I could've slugged her! Dumb goth chick wanna-be! So I'm now the crazy flower lady - go figure. But we worked hard planting our flowers, and I LOVE looking at them!
Oh well...what do you do? Anyway, I'm going tonight with my dad and Mark to see Kate Voegele perform at Club Sound in SLC. It's a crappy venue, but I love her music. (www.myspace.com/katevoegele) She plays Mia on One Tree Hill. It airs on Mondays at 9pm on the CW. She plays her own songs on the show - the girl's got a great voice! And she's got a cute personality - we saw her perform last year as well. I'll post pics after the concert tonight!

Easter

2009-04-13T21:13:00.012-06:00

Haddie's Easter Bunny gifts (The chair she received as a Christmas gift however)

Haddie was most interested in her Barney DVD - she wanted to watch it immediately. She'll sit and watch Barney for at least 45 minutes by herself and be perfectly content.

Her Easter doll - she LOVES taking baths so she got a Bath-Time Baby. (She saw it in the shopping cart and yelled "Baby!" then picked up the box and kissed it!)
Mark thought he'd take an incriminating picture of me. I was eating a Snickers egg and gave one to Haddie but she didn't like hers. She handed it back to me so I was eating two, one in each hand. Mark said it's a sign of a true chocoholic!
We took her new bubble gun outside to try it out. I thought this was a cute picture.Wearing her new Easter outfit, running around our backyard.

Swinging at Mark's mom's house.
On Grandma Ronda's slide.Mine and Mark's "Easter Bunny" gift to each other is coming soon - we're going to get a patio table and chair set so we can enjoy our nice covered patio more. We had a wonderful Easter. We went over to Mark's Mom's for Easter dinner after nap time and played in her backyard for awhile and visited. Because Haddie ran around outside so much, she went to bed extremely well, which was the perfect ending to a beautiful day!

Coloring Easter Eggs

2009-04-11T17:56:00.005-06:00

Haddie colored Easter eggs for the first time Thursday night. Daddy helped her while Mommy ran the video and digital cameras.

She was so excited when she dropped an egg in and the water splashed all over. She insisted on plopping them in, rather than worrying about cracking the shells.

She also insisted on grabbing them out with her hands. What do we need egg dippers for?

She kept trying to taste them as she'd grab them out. She doesn't care much for the taste of vinegar!

She also kept trying to put 2-3 eggs in each cup. Multi-tasking, you know.

The finished products. She's so proud of them! And Daddy just likes to eat them.

Haddie's masterpiece. Boy am I glad I thought to put a towel underneath her before she got started!

Happy Easter to everyone tomorrow! Be safe in your travels.

Gettin' Old Blue

2009-04-03T18:04:00.005-06:00

Last Saturday Kellie, Hollie and I made a trip to good old Malad, Idaho. We were going to pick up our very own Old Blue! A family friend raises beef cows and gave us a great deal on 1/2 a beef to split. All day, Kell and I were so excited to go. We felt like big girls, getting our own cow! So we packed up in Kell's van and head up to Idaho. *Disclaimer - after this next sentence, I don't wanna talk about it anymore!* I got us lost. Okay, not lost, but if I'd had my way we'd have been going to Boise. Kellie asked me which way we went when we got to Tremonton. I told her go left, so she did. A few miles past Tremonton and Kellie asked me "Linz, are you SURE we go this way?" Um, yeah! Because we have to go past Plymouthhhhh......Oh crap! The OTHER road, the RIGHT road takes us past Plymouth!!! So we had to back track a bit. And we were a bit late needless to say.
The whole drive there we talked about animals. We'd ask Hollie what a baby cow says and she squeaks out a petite little "Moo!" Momma cow? A different petite "Moo!" A teenager cow? "MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Then we saw a deer crossing sign. What does a deer say? I pipe up and say "Baaaaaaaaa" just like a um, sheep! Oh wait, wrong animal. Then we named our cow Old Blue and would honk and wave at cows in pastures along the road "Hi, Old Blue's family!" "We'll let you know if he's any good!"
So we made it in one piece and picked up our fabulous beef. When we got home, we unloaded it in my garage so we could split it up between the two of us. We filled up laundry baskets and 18 gallon totes full of Old Blue. My, how lovely my freezer looks with all that meat in there! I like to open it just to take a peek. These pics are of all of our meat, in my garage.

This list below is just my portion of meat that I paid $333.50 for!

Ground Beef : 24 pounds
Hamburger Patties: 48
Rump Roast: 1
Sirloin Tip Roast : 2
Round Steak: 10
T-Bone: 8
Tenderloin Steak: 2
Sirloin Steak: 3
Chuck Roast: 6
Rib Steak: 8

So far we've eaten T-Bones and Ground Beef. Oh my, I know why I prefer meat from the butcher! So much better tasting! Tonight we're trying out some patties on the George Foreman - yeah for Hamburgers!

Home Decor

2009-03-31T13:15:00.004-06:00

I've gone a little crazy with vinyl and decorating my house. Here are some pics showing what I've been up to!

This is the end of the hallway. This 'Home' sign was given to us at our wedding. I cut the vinyl below it with my Cricut.

I made this cross-stitch when I was pregnant with Haddie. I've had it done forever but finally framed it. It's hanging in her room.

Another cross-stitch I made. This one was finished before we even got married 2+ years ago. I also just framed this one. It's hanging in the living room.

Vinyl cut with my Cricut, on our bedroom wall above the dresser.

The wall above the bathtub. Haddie loves her baths so I wanted to do something fun in here. This one was so much fun to make! (Again, made with the Cricut)

Vinyl on Haddie's wall above her crib. It's from my favorite children's book, I'll Love You Forever. If it's not readable, it says "I'll love you forever I'll like you for always. As long as I'm living My baby you'll be."

The outside of Haddie's door. More vinyl. "With a butterfly kiss and a ladybug hug, Sleep tight little one like a bug in a rug" I love this one! I want to cut more bugs like these to put on her changing table and armoire.

And the rest of these are also cross-stitches I made while pregnant. They're all hanging in Haddie's room. (Obviously, her room is decorated in Care Bears!)

I also have vinyl on my laundry room door "Laundry Room - Drop your drawers here" but haven't gotten a picture of that. I have a couple more ideas but they're a work in progress :)

Haddie loves Daddy!

2009-03-06T22:19:00.005-07:00

Haddie is definitely a Daddy's Girl. (She's Mommy's Girl when Daddy doesn't give her her way, however)

Mark leaves his PJs on the floor next to our entertainment center in our bedroom every day. One day while he was working day shift, I walked into the room and found Haddie carting around Mark's pajama shirt.

She's recently learned how to put her own coat on and tries to help dress herself if I hand her clothes to her. So...she put Mark's shirt on over her head but couldn't figure out where the arms go

Mark was pretty excited to hear that his little girl misses him while he's gone when I showed him these pictures. They're buddies - Mark almost always takes Haddie with him to run errands and they hang out in the basement together on his days off.

Draper Temple Open House

2009-03-01T20:47:00.006-07:00

We went to the open house for the Draper Temple last night. Kell, her husband and 3 kids, my mom, and Mark, Haddie and I all went. I was so glad Mark was willing to go - It meant a lot to me! Especially when he dresses up so handsome in his 'monkey suit' as he so lovingly calls it! (He shaved for me, too!) He looked great. Haddie looked beautiful as well.

All four kids were so well-behaved. I was so proud of them. Haddie got excited when we were walking by the baptismal font. She couldn't take her eyes off the 12 oxen. She pointed and quite loudly exclaimed "Dog-dog!" a few times. (That's what she calls our dog) Apparently she thought they looked like giant dogs! It was so sweet, it had all of us plus some other people around us giggling.

It was a great experience that I'm glad I was able to share with my family. This was the 3rd open house I've attended - First the Bountiful temple (with my fam), then Mt. Timpanogos (with Young Women's) and now Draper.
Last night reinforced my desire to re-activate myself in the Church. I've not attended church since my senior year of high school (5 years ago) and it's about high time I got myself going again. I'm really dragging my feet with this ward though, now. Before we bought our home, Kell and I were in the same ward and we'd go to church functions together and I had great visiting teachers. Since we're now in a new ward, I feel like an outcast. Sure, I've met many people in my ward and have wonderful new visiting teachers - they're great women! But it's hard thinking about going to church just Haddie and I. I know they'd make us feel welcome but I don't like doing new things. (I'm one of those that hates change)
Anywho, it will happen. I'll get there :)

He's a She!

2009-02-19T22:06:00.003-07:00

Poor Scruffy...Mark and Haddie took him to the vet this morning while I was at work. We decided we'd better get him fixed so we can get him licensed before March 1st to avoid a fine and citation. Mark picked him up this afternoon and was quite disappointed. Not just because we had to pay $200 (he needed vaccinations too)...but he was distraught because they didn't give Scruffy the Elizabethan collar. He's been looking forward to taking pictures of the poor thing wearing it. Alas, they said it wasn't necessary unless he proves otherwise.
That reminds me of 10 Things I Hate About You..."What's the collar for? Is it to keep him from licking the stitches?" Ha ha I love it.
Anyway. Scruffy whined the whole way home. I'm sure he's upset with us for taking away his manhood. Poor picked on dog! He's doing quite well though. We just barely gave him food, hopefully it sits well in his stomach.
Oh my dear husband, he's such a crazy man. A couple hours ago Scruffy had an accident downstairs which upset Mark. The vet's assistant told him he likely wouldn't poop for 24 hours or so because of the anesthesia. So Mark didn't worry about putting him outside. Poor dog hadn't been outside to pee all afternoon! He figured that he wouldn't need to pee because of the anesthesia as well!????? Leave it to him. So I helped the poor doggy out and put him out for a few minutes lol.

Recipe for Jess

2009-02-09T12:57:00.006-07:00

Jessica (a nurse from work) asked me to post the recipe for something I took for lunch one day...so here it is! My mom made it for us growing up, and it quickly became a family fave. Sorry, I have no picture to show :( But I promise it's yummy!

Sour Cream Chili Bake

1 lb ground beef
1 can tomato sauce
1/2 package taco seasoning
salt & pepper, to taste
1 can red kidney beans
grated cheddar cheese
sour cream
Nacho Cheese Doritos

Brown your hamburger & add taco seasoning
In 13x9 baking dish, mix hamburger, tomato sauce, salt & pepper, kidney beans and 1/2 cup cheese - Smooth in bottom of dish
Add a layer of sour cream (we LOVE sour cream so we use a ton!)
Add a layer of Doritos, slightly crushed. (I just squeeze them in my hand til they break a little)
Top with more cheese
Bake in oven at 350 for 20 min or until cheese melts

I make this at least a couple times a month. It even freezes well - you just put it in the fridge to thaw the night before. I've even made it when Mark & I were doing Weight Watchers - we just used a 8x8 pan instead, used less cheese, fat free sour cream, less ground beef and Baked Doritos. We'd eat the whole pan, and it was only like 10 Flex points a piece, depending on how lean you buy your ground beef. Enjoy!

Bumps, Bruises & Broken Bones

2009-01-31T12:03:00.004-07:00

It will never cease to amaze me how often and easily kids can get hurt. I'd probably cry if I counted how many times a day Haddie hits her head, falls, or has the dog knock her over. It seems Haddie frequently has bruises on her head. She's even had them on her bottom from falling so hard. But she's a trooper, and rarely cries for more than a few seconds. Kids are built tough, thank goodness. Which leads me to our latest injury.
Haddie broke her left leg Wednesday night. Nobody saw what happened exactly, although my nephew Taylor said when he'd last seen her she was heading up the stairs. She didn't act real hurt, and then was fine shortly after. But then she was fussy again. It happened around bedtime, so it was just assumed she was cranky & ready for bed. She didn't sleep well, and had a hard tummy so I thought she was crying cause her stomach hurt. Gave her gas drops, put a rice bag on her tummy & put her to bed. Thursday morning, she wasn't standing up in her crib like she usually does. No big deal, didn't think much about that either. After breakfast I tried standing her on the ground. She immediately fell & started crying. I tried standing her again, but this time not completely letting her bear all her weight. She stood on the right leg but lifted her left one behind her. She then got preoccupied and stood for a minute then tried walking. As soon as she put all her weight on that foot she fell again. It was at that point that I knew something had happened, so we made a Dr. appointment. So we took her in, had it x-rayed. Lo and behold, we have a broken tibia. But it's only a buckle fracture (because kids have soft bones, sometimes they have an incomplete fracture where the bone 'buckles' upon itself, causing a bulge rather than completely breaking) so the doc didn't cast it. He said he would've had to cast it up to the top of her thigh for it to do any good, and then she wouldn't be able to even crawl. So she's just taking liquid Lortab & ibuprofen. Doc said she'll probably have a limp for a couple weeks, once she is able to walk again. Otherwise she should heal fine. I think I cried more than she did!
She's already able to bear some weight, although it's still pretty painful for her. She sometimes forgets that it hurts and will try to stand on it. She took 3 steps yesterday, said "ow" and fell down. She seems to be hurting worse today than yesterday - she's not as mobile as she was. She's had to resort back to crawling, the poor kiddo. She's tough though so I'm sure she'll be running around again soon enough!

Wedding Slideshow

2009-01-26T00:58:00.004-07:00

I got looking through old files and found this slideshow I made from our wedding
We were married in Brigham City, UT on December 8, 2006
We played "Bless the Broken Road" by Rascal Flatts while walked down the aisle

More Christmas

2009-01-25T23:34:00.007-07:00

Grandma Ronda (Mark's mom) and Haddie reading a book. Her pony is pathetically tiny, but I'm just so excited that she's finally getting some hair!

Not a very good picture, but I just wanted to show what I made for gifts for Christmas this year. I made Ronda a tile with vinyl lettering that says "Grandmas are Moms with lots of frosting" and an easel to display it on. I had so much fun making gifts this year! I felt like everyone really liked them, compared to some generic store-bought gift.

For Cory and Angelina (Mark's bro & sis-in-law) I made them a tile that says "Love doesn't make the world go round. Love makes the ride worth while"
For Mark's grandma I made one that said "PHENES - Est. 1945" but didn't get pics of it. I made magnets for everyone in Mark's family. I also made beaded watch bands for Angelina & Ronda and a bracelet for Lyndsay

Ronda kept telling everybody what their presents were before they could get them all the way unwrapped. She was so excited! Finally Mark got after her & told her she really couldn't spoil what they'd (Mark, his mom & grandma) gotten me. They made her put packing tape over her mouth until I'd opened it - they got me a Cricut! (Which I'm now having WAY too much fun with! Ha ha)

Me, being a nerd & posing for my 400th picture of the morning. Mark gets camera happy

That's my sister-in-law, Lyndsay on the left.

Cory & Angelina

After going through tons of Christmas pics, I've decided I need to get better about taking control of the camera. We have very few pictures with Mark in them since he's proclaimed himself camera man.

Christmas

2009-01-25T22:33:00.010-07:00

Okay so I decided it's time to post Christmas pics...better late than never, right?

We had to get together with Mark's grandma and dad on Christmas Eve. We weren't able to see them Christmas Day.

Haddie got a mower from Great Grandma Phenes
She loves it - she runs up and down our hallway pushing it.

She also got a Little Tykes car from Grandma.
She's figured out she can push it next to my glider in the living room - She climbs in the car, then climbs out the window onto my chair. She's such a smart girl.

Hadley and I on Christmas Day

Wearing our Tinkerbell jammies - We get new pjs every Christmas Eve

Scruffy wearing his Christmas sweater.

Christmas morning. Haddie adores her Daddy! They are such goofballs

Haddie checking out what Santa brought her. She needed a toy box - Mommy is sick of picking up her toys! She plays with her piano a lot. She'll push a key to make it start playing music and start dancing around her room.

Haddie opening presents. We like Tinkerbell in our house - okay so maybe it's just me. I made Haddie's Tinkerbell blanket. She also got a Tinkerbell hoodie.

Haddie ran off in the middle of a diaper change.
"No time for formalities mom! So many toys, so little time!"

Our Silly Girl

2009-01-12T15:24:00.006-07:00

When we bought our house in September, we had problems with our freezer drawer not shutting. Shaun, my brother-in-law offered to fix it while over for dinner one night. She decided he needed some help with the freezer, so she climbed right in. We'd pull her out and she'd climb right back in. Haddie's always loved her Uncle Shaun. (He adores her, as well!)

Haddie pulls pots out of the cupboard frequently - she's figured out there's one cupboard that doesn't have a child lock on it. One day she pulled this pot out to play with it and ended up accidentally falling bottom-first into it. She was so mad! It was hilarious so say the least.

But then she decided it wasn't such a bad place to hang out. She pulled the pot back out of the cupboard and had a seat and opened her book. Guess it brings a new meaning to reading on the pot, eh? Scruffy (our Yorkie-Pug dog) decided he'd like storytime as well.

Haddie's checking "Santa's List" for her name.

YAY! I FOUND MY NAME!

Haddie's 1st Birthday!

2008-12-13T00:20:00.012-07:00

Our little girl is getting so big! It's hard to fathom that this time last year I had a newborn and was a brand new mommy. I want to share some pictures as she's grown this year.

Holding my daughter for the first time.
December 12, 2007
1:29 PM
7lbs 2oz
20" long
She was so alert from the moment she was born!

Easter - 3 1/2 months
7 months old
8 months - Bathing in the swimming pool
I love her cheesy smirks!
9 months - Hadley pulled old pizza out of the garbage.
Nasty, yes. But I had to take pictures!

Birthday Pictures

Haddie - carrying her birthday balloon around the house
Opening presents - She lost interest pretty quickly.
Yes, that's my nephew Taylor covering his head with wrapping paper.
Oh how we love that boy!
Hadley's Birthday Cake
Another cake - we got this for free, since it's her 1st birthday
We have a ton leftover too. Want some?
Singing Happy Birthday
She was not amused.
But look! She has a tiny pony - Yay for growing hair!
She acted scared of her cake!
I gave her the whole thing to play with, and she wouldn't touch it.
Well, she finally touched it. On accident
And decided mommy should wear it all over the 'girls'.
I'll never get the red frosting stains out.

She received some fun toys from my family. I'll get pictures of her playing with them and post them soon!
We get to do it all over again for the party with Mark's family. Hopefully she'll enjoy her cake more. We didn't even cut the Elmo's World one.
It was such a long day for her - She was such a trooper though
So was Mommy! I didn't cry!

Joining the blogging world!

2008-11-04T22:14:00.007-07:00

Okay so my sister has been harping on me to start a blog. (Yeah, cause I don't spend enough time on the internet as it is!) Here ya go, sister! I like to share pics of my baby girl anyway, though - I'm a proud mommy!

A little about my family - My husband Mark and I were married Dec 8, '06. So we're coming up on our 2nd anniversary. He is 27 and I'm 23. I got pregnant 3 months after our wedding. Our daughter, Hadley Jo (we call her Haddie) was born Dec 12, '07. Her 1st birthday is coming up quick as well! Mark works as an Operator for Great Salt Lake Minerals and I work as a CNA for a rehabilitation center. We just bought a house in September (which is why I'm working again) so we're still settling in. I can't wait for Thanksgiving to be here so I can decorate our home for Christmas!

Here are some pictures of Haddie on Halloween. She was such a cute little stink pot. I took her to the Trunk or Treat for my ward. It was lots of fun! We went with my sister's family. Haddie was looking at everybody, taking it all in. She didn't like her candy being put in her basket - she kept pulling it all out. (Smart girl, she knew mommy would take it and eat it!)